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Old Glenn, 1938
Old Glenn, retired hunter, relates a tale of the time he and his crew fought a master vampire... “It was 1938, just before WWII, and we’d tracked that blood sucker to an old plantation down in Louisiana. It had holed up in the old manor house, one of those old sprawling ones like you kids see in the movies. '' ''There were three of us there that day; Cecil, Mary and me. We had guns for its servants and had loaded up on the holy water, crosses, wooden stakes – Mary even had a crossbow, the Lord knows where she found that – and we went in during the day when it was meant to be sleeping. We thought we were so clever. But it wasn’t us that had it trapped; oh no, it had lured us into a trap. '' ''Sure, it had to sleep during the day – dirt of the homeland and all that – but it had hid its coffin well, or had one of its servants do it, and it had defences, and not just those human traitors looking to become immortal. No, that bugger could command the creatures of the night! Now, I’m not squeamish, but when those rats came pouring out of the side rooms they looked like a moving carpet – or maybe the ocean – a heaving, surging tide of fur that made you sick to the stomach just looking at them – and they swarmed all over us. '' ''But we dealt with them – unpleasant and grisly work, but we drove them off; amazing what buckshot will do to a mass like that – and moved on in to the manor. We were systematic; we went room to room, searching every nook and cranny we could find; looking in cupboards, searching for secret doors, all that jazz. And every step of the way it tried to stop us. It sent its minions against us – human slaves, more rats – and booby traps; the swan off stair case in the basement almost took me out, but Cecil managed to pull me back before I impaled myself on that spike it had rammed into the ground. We searched all day and couldn’t find it, although we dug out some of its childer and beheaded them. But before we knew it, it was dusk. And then it was its turn to do the hunting.” '' Old Glenn paused, taking a sip of his beer, and rubbing at the patch over his eye before continuing. ''“It was the smell that gave it away; the slightly sweet, metallic smell of blood overlying the musty scent of ancient decay. I turned around and there it was, moving silently out of the darkness like a shark, its face twisted into a mask of hate as it came at us. And it came at us fast; so very, very fast. Cecil didn’t stand a chance. '' ''I was still reaching for the silver crucifix around my neck as it crushed Cecil’s skull in one of its clawed hands; crushed it like you’d crush one of those throw-away cups; you know, the hard plastic ones that just crack and shatter. He was dead so fast, he didn’t even get a chance to make a noise. '' ''I’m not too proud to say, but I was frozen in fear and it was Mary who reacted first. That dame was a great hunter, one of the best; she never hesitated, she had that crossbow up and a bolt in the air before poor Cecil hit the ground. I swear, I thought that bolt was going to take it through the heart, but it was just gone, melted back into the shadows and that bolt just impaled itself in the wall. '' ''And then it was back, a maggoty white blur in the darkness as it grabbed Mary; she did well, flipped it over her head using kung fu or something, and it went crashing to the floor. I thought we had it then – I went for it with a stake, tried to drive it through its heart before it could get up, but before I could get to it, it had flung itself onto the ceiling... I know how that sounds, but it sat there glaring down at us, affixed to the ceiling like a spider, gazing down...” '' Glenn pauses again. ''“I don’t really know what happened after that. Next thing I knew it was just me and the vampire. I could see Mary behind it, lying on the ground, her skin pale, bloodless. I don’t know what happened to her, but the vampire was standing over me. I grabbed my crucifix; thrust it forward to repel the creature... I still remember what it said... “I remember your Saviour, His sacrifice on the cross, I was there that night; He may have power over my childer, but He has no power over me!”... and it just reached out and crushed... the silver, it was like it was wax in its hands...” '' Glenn swallows heavily. ''“And then it let me go, just let me run away... let me go to live with my guilt, and my fear... and the worst thing is... it’s still out there.”